Hello Everyone, My name is Chris Walker, I am the Manager of New Technology for Pioneer Electronics. Everyone at Pioneer loves this site and Pioneer has decided to go ahead and try to answer some of the questions that the enthusiasts on this site may have regarding Pioneer's Products. My focus at Pioneer is product planning for AV products (DVD, DVD Recorders, AV Receivers, Blu-ray, and HTIB). As you can imagine there is some information that I may not be able to share due to timing and competitive issues, however I will do my best.

If I fail to respond to certain questions in a timely manner please do not take offense. Sometimes I have to wait for answers from Japan which can take some time.

Also, please do not take offense if I cannot answer a question due to product introduction timings as well as competitive issues.

I am looking forward to trying to answer any questions you might have.

Might Pioneer upgrade MCACC to include correction of time domain behavior as does Audyssey MultEQ and, I believe, HK?

Also, how about full correction of the subwoofer channel, arguably the most important in improving sound quality.

Along this line, something that no one has is a user-selectable lower limit frequency to match the sub's capabilities (HK comes closest a sub size selection, but results are hit-or-miss).

Or, might Pioneer ever offer MultEQ?

Another EQ feature I'd love to see is at least two memories for different EQ setups for those of us with different music listening and movie viewing locations.

Thanks very much

P.S. I thought from the thread title that someone had a question; little did I suspect we were going to be treated to Pioneer pruduct *answers* from an actual Pioneer representative; perhaps you can edit the title so people don't unknowingly miss out.

Great receivers. Though I can't afford an Elite at the moment, I know an elite will be up there when I upgrade. Pioneer should look into implementing video processing in some of their receivers like the Harman Kardon 7300, and Denon 5805. Though those receivers use top of the line Faroudja video processing, I think this could be implemented in even the lower end lines by using by using lower end processing chips used by dvd players (or something to that effect).

One thing I find lacking is the on screen display on pioneer receivers. Showing something as little as volume control can mean a lot for many users. The OSD shouldn't be limited to just set up.

Might Pioneer upgrade MCACC to include correction of time domain behavior as does Audyssey MultEQ and, I believe, HK?

Also, how about full correction of the subwoofer channel, arguably the most important in improving sound quality.

Along this line, something that no one has is a user-selectable lower limit frequency to match the sub's capabilities (HK comes closest a sub size selection, but results are hit-or-miss).

Or, might Pioneer ever offer MultEQ?

Another EQ feature I'd love to see is at least two memories for different EQ setups for those of us with different music listening and movie viewing locations.

Thanks very much

P.S. I thought from the thread title that someone had a question; little did I suspect we were going to be treated to Pioneer pruduct *answers* from an actual Pioneer representative; perhaps you can edit the title so people don't unknowingly miss out.

Hi Noah, the new MCACC feature in the 72 and 74 will solve both the time issue as well as the Subwoofer issues.

Phase control addresses the delay in bass from the LPF in the receiver as well as LPF in the subwoofer. As you can imagine this delay causes major phase problems in the audio. I will post some pre and post Phase Control delay charts in the detailed product information section our custom install section of our website (Next day or two)

Subwoofer channel correction has been greatly improved with the Standing Wave Control with our new VSX-74 and 72 receivers. You simply place the microphone in 3 different locations in the room. I cannot go into exactly how this is done (since we are the only ones doing this right now), but I will post some pre and post charts in the detailed product section of the custom install section of our website. Next day or two)

As for having a couple different MCACC memories, the 72 and 74 have 6 different memories for differnt seating locations.

We have heard through the "grapevine" that the recently released 74TXVi has Burr Brown DSD1791DBR DACs. Can you confirm this?

Also, can you tell us what OpAmps are used in the 74TXVi?

Lastly can you confirm and maybe explain what type of amplifier section is in the 74TXVi? Class AB, Class D? Does it use MOSFETS or Bipolar transistors, etc....?

Thanks,
Patrick

Hi Patrick,

Yep, that is correct. There are 4 of them (1 for each set of two channels) 113db dynamic range. That is 1 db more than the famous PCM1704.

The OpAmps that are being used are UPC4570 from NEC. These are the same that were used in the VSX-54 and 56.

The amps in these new receivers are Low Energy loss Class AB amps(Bi-Polar) (We call them Direct Energy). They very unique in there design. We should have a detailed explanation of them on the website in a few days. I think everyone will be pleased with the sound.

Great receivers. Though I can't afford an Elite at the moment, I know an elite will be up there when I upgrade. Pioneer should look into implementing video processing in some of their receivers like the Harman Kardon 7300, and Denon 5805. Though those receivers use top of the line Faroudja video processing, I think this could be implemented in even the lower end lines by using by using lower end processing chips used by dvd players (or something to that effect).

One thing I find lacking is the on screen display on pioneer receivers. Showing something as little as volume control can mean a lot for many users. The OSD shouldn't be limited to just set up.

I agree with you regarding video processing, the VSX-74TXVi and the 72TXV, are the first to have any kind of video processing at all. There is no scaling or IP conversion, however there are video adjustments (Color, Brightness, etc...) for each input. This way you do not have to keep making adjustments to your television. Simply setup the video for each source connected to the receiver and leave your TV to one input.

The OSD is a little better then in previous years and our goal is to continually improve it.

Probably a stupid question but I just purchased the 1015tx and if you read many of the threads you will find that many people loves this AVR. I love mine except for 2 things.

Is Pioneer releasing a Silver version is the US Market?

It seems to be a little quiet on the volume side, I understand this has a lot to do with speaker efficiency and room accoustics, but I seem to listen to music between -10dB and -3dB. This seems to be a little on the high side of the volume scale. I would not consider this volume to be ear piercing or anything either.

This is my first post here but i have been following this forum from a few months now. My question was in regards to the difference between the 72tvx and the 74tvxi. I know that there are some obvious differences between them such as the i link ports, the usb port, etc. My main question was in regard to the differences in DACs, OpAmps, and the Power supplys between the two new Elite receivers. How exactly is the extra 10 watts per channel rating achieved on top of the 130 watts per channel the 72tvx is rated at? Also how was the weight reduced from the 54tx to the 72tvx [difference in shielding, power supplies, etc?].

Yep, that is correct. There are 4 of them (1 for each set of two channels) 113db dynamic range. That is 1 db more than the famous PCM1704.

The OpAmps that are being used are UPC4570 from NEC. These are the same that were used in the VSX-54 and 56.

The amps in these new receivers are Low Energy loss Class AB amps(Bi-Polar) (We call them Direct Energy). They very unique in there design. We should have a detailed explanation of them on the website in a few days. I think everyone will be pleased with the sound.

Chris Walker

Thanks for the quick response Chris! This is a Great idea to start this thread BTW!!

I look forward to the Amplifier explaintion.

As far as the OpAmps go I know someone who has the service manuals for the 55TXi/56TXi and it says the OpAmps used in those models are the NJM4565, not the UPC4570.
So I guess they are different. Do you know how they differ?

"Phase control addresses the delay in bass from the LPF in the receiver as well as LPF in the subwoofer ..."

If this is in response to my question about time-domain correction, it wasn't phase I was referring to.

Audyssey, for example, claims that MultEQ will correct a sidewall reflection by generating its inverse to cancel it.

"Subwoofer channel correction has been greatly improved with the Standing Wave Control with our new VSX-74 and 72 receivers."

How low in freq will it correct?

Also, will it attempt to fully correct modal peaks? I have an HK 635 which improved my bass range a lot but it's obvious it didn't fully correct the peaks, and others have made corroborating measurements to that effect.

"As for having a couple different MCACC memories, the 72 and 74 have 6 different memories for differnt seating locations."

Thanks for the quick response Chris! This is a Great idea to start this thread BTW!!

I look forward to the Amplifier explaintion.

As far as the OpAmps go I know someone who has the service manuals for the 55TXi/56TXi and it says the OpAmps used in those models are the NJM4565, not the UPC4570.
So I guess they are different. Do you know how they differ?

Thanks,
Patrick

There are two different OpAmps being used. I will detail each one below.

"Phase control addresses the delay in bass from the LPF in the receiver as well as LPF in the subwoofer ..."

If this is in response to my question about time-domain correction, it wasn't phase I was referring to.

Audyssey, for example, claims that MultEQ will correct a sidewall reflection by generating its inverse to cancel it.

"Subwoofer channel correction has been greatly improved with the Standing Wave Control with our new VSX-74 and 72 receivers."

How low in freq will it correct?

Also, will it attempt to fully correct modal peaks? I have an HK 635 which improved my bass range a lot but it's obvious it didn't fully correct the peaks, and others have made corroborating measurements to that effect.

"As for having a couple different MCACC memories, the 72 and 74 have 6 different memories for differnt seating locations."

Great!

Thanks, Chris

P.S. You did tell your boss this would be a full time job, right?

Hi Noah, sorry for the misunderstanding. I have sent an email off to Japan to get a clearer answer to your question regarding time domain correction.

As far as Standing Wave Correction, I need to get an exact answer from Japan as well. However I am adding an image of exactly what the circuit does. I will try and get some actual measurements as well.

"Phase control addresses the delay in bass from the LPF in the receiver as well as LPF in the subwoofer ..."

If this is in response to my question about time-domain correction, it wasn't phase I was referring to.

Audyssey, for example, claims that MultEQ will correct a sidewall reflection by generating its inverse to cancel it.

"Subwoofer channel correction has been greatly improved with the Standing Wave Control with our new VSX-74 and 72 receivers."

How low in freq will it correct?

Also, will it attempt to fully correct modal peaks? I have an HK 635 which improved my bass range a lot but it's obvious it didn't fully correct the peaks, and others have made corroborating measurements to that effect.

"As for having a couple different MCACC memories, the 72 and 74 have 6 different memories for differnt seating locations."

Great!

Thanks, Chris

P.S. You did tell your boss this would be a full time job, right?

Noah, thank goodness for the time difference in Japan. I received an answer regarding how low in freq that the circuit will correct (62.5Hz up to 250Hz)

I'd also like to point out that Chris was the representative from Pioneer who contacted me with regards to the HDMI switching problem I had with my new 74TXVi. Chris and the rest of his team went well above my expectations in terms of trying to resolve the issue. Chris and his team even went to a local store with a 74 to test it's HDMI output with various displays and projectors. In the end it turned out that my receiver (which has been replaced with a new 74TXVi)apparently had a defective HDMI output but they were very helpful in attempting to determine what the problem was.

In this age of outsourcing customer service, Chris and the rest of the Pioneer folks really impressed me. Thanks again!

Can this Pioneer do bass management and apply MCACC on analog multichannel inputs?

Is the cross-over setting for bass management "global" like it is on the 56TXi? Or can you individually select a different cross-over point for say the front speakers and the center and/or rear speakers?

Looks pretty good (numbers on the dB axis would be nice). But I wonder, given that our ears work like integrating 1/6 (IIRC) octave filters, if the broader lower rise isn't still audible compared to the sharper higher orif=ginal peak.

Should mention that something's funny about the graph, though. At the edges of the peak both the blue and red lines are negative, so how could they combine to positive (yellow)?

Thanks for the (quick!) answer on the lowest correction freq. I'll just say I think it should go down to at 20 Hz. My room is 22' long, giving a first mode at 25 Hz, and I'm sure there are people with bigger rooms.

For reference, 62.5 Hz will be the first mode for a room with an 8.8' largest dimension.

If a change in MCACC to address this isn't forthcoming, I'd at least be interested to know why this limitation was placed on the design.

Can this Pioneer do bass management and apply MCACC on analog multichannel inputs?

Is the cross-over setting for bass management "global" like it is on the 56TXi? Or can you individually select a different cross-over point for say the front speakers and the center and/or rear speakers?

Thanks,
Patrick

Hi Patrick, yes you can apply MCACC to the analog multi-channel inputs on both the 72 and 74 receivers.